The Rolling Stones cover of “I hate to see you go” is almost identical to Little Walter’s original version of it. He was an inspiration of theirs so it is unsurprising that they would want to do a cover of one of his songs. I suppose they had to pay to do the cover of the song and so they were well within their right to do it legally but I am a bit torn on the ethics of it. They added no real personal touches to the song, was it meant to be exactly the same as an homage? It was more popular than the original too, is that because the Rolling Stones are very famous and because the internet makes music more accessible or because they are white? I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that I agree that it is a continuation of the minstrel show tradition but it does make me somewhat uncomfortable. Should white musicians have to be more thoughtful about what songs they cover and consider their popularity? Something about popular white musicians performing covers of songs by black musicians makes me a bit uncomfortable and it always seems as though it is a continuation of white people appropriating African American culture.

Learning about sound waves required less uncomfortable thinking although I admit I am still a bit fuzzy on some of the details. I understand pitch and frequency fine but I start to get a bit lost with the overtones. I do find the theory that music can be translated into architecture fascinating though. I don’t fully understand how that translation works but I am drawn to the idea that different kinds of art are connected to each other. I am still a realist and that seems to be more of an idealist view but it is still interesting.

The final point that industrialization lowers the quality of product was different. I have heard that before but not in relation to digital media; I had always assumed that as technology improved the quality of digital media would too but I suppose people will cut corners everywhere. It is nice to know that products are beginning to be enriched again though.